102236 | UNITED STATES. Mark Twain uniface bronze Medal.

102236  |  UNITED STATES. Mark Twain uniface bronze Medal. Issued 1935. Commemorating the centennial of the birth of the famous writer, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) (76mm, 186.58 g, 12h). By J. Kilenyi for Robbins Co. in Attleboro, MA.

 

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS / MARK TWAIN / CENTENNIAL / 1835–1935, bust right, in frock coat. Edge: Plain.

 

Cf. HK 775 (for a smaller version in 38mm); Marqusee 224. Mint State. Olive-brown surfaces, with a slight matte nature. Very rare, especially in this larger, more impressive format.

 

Born in Missouri in 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens arrived at his famous pseudonym from his early job as an apprentice pilot on the Mississippi River. Within this vocation, the leadman on a boat would shout "mark twain" when the vessel had reached safe waters, with the phrase equivalent to two fathoms deep (one fathom being a unit of measure equal to approximately six feet—the wingspan of an adult man's outstretched arms). Twain would become one of America's most celebrated humorists, journalists, and authors, with some of his best-known works pertaining to American frontier life in the 19th century. Quite famously associated with Halley's Comet, he joked that "...I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year [1910], and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'" Indeed, he was born two weeks after the comet's perihelion in 1835 and died the day after the comet's next perihelion in 1910.

 

Upload: 1 December 2022.

 

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